If I hadn't happened to hear the motor it might have been me
instead. I wish it had been," he declared gloomily.
"No you don't. Great Scott, cheer up, Van! The country hasn't gone
to the dogs yet. I must admit you are in a mess; but it doesn't
begin to be the mess it would have been if you had gone to the game,
had a bang-up time, and come home a sneak who had stolen his fun. At
least you have done the square thing and 'fessed up, and now you'll
be man enough to take what's coming to you. What do you suppose
Maitland will do?"
"I can guess pretty well--pack me off home. He is stiff as a ramrod
on obedience to the school rules," sighed Van, "and he's right, too.
It is perfectly fair. I knew it when I went."
"I can't see, just for one afternoon of sport, how you--" Bob broke
off. "If I'd only been here you never would have gone."
"Maybe not," admitted Van. Then he added in the same breath: "No, I
shouldn't have gone if you had been here, Bobbie. Somehow you're my
good angel. I wrote Father so the other day."
"Stuff!"
"It's true. You are such a brick! I thought you'd blow my head off
when you'd heard what I'd done."
"Well, I am mad enough to do it," was the tart reply. "For you to go
and do a thing like that just for a ball game! It wasn't worth it.
Think of your being pitched out of Colversham for a measly game of
baseball. And you didn't get there, either!"
Van kicked the pillows impatiently.
"Don't light into me, Bobbie," he moaned.
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